Ebola spreads due Bushmeat, monkeys and mistakes

Stumbled across a Vice document which shows some features why Ebola spreads in Liberia.

As we need a source of protein and in Africa there isnt so much farmed livestock Ebola spreads due handling and eating bushmeat ( rodents monkeys etc.
). Liberian goverment has forbidden bushmeat but no one really cares what its saying.

Also unsafe funerals cause a threat as people washes their deceased ones and even brushes their teeth and there is no safety measures taken.

At the same time, MSF said, a lack of understanding has meant people continue to prepare corpses and attend funerals of Ebola victims, leaving
them vulnerable to the disease, transmitted by touching victims or through bodily fluids.

Civil society groups, governments and religious authorities have also failed to acknowledge the scale of the epidemic and as a result few prominent
figures are promoting the fight against the disease, the statement said. "The epidemic is out of control," said Bart Janssens, MSF director of
operations. "With the appearance of new sites in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, there is a real risk of it spreading to other areas."

"Ebola is no longer a public health issue limited to Guinea: it is affecting the whole of West Africa," said Janssens, urging WHO, affected
countries and their neighbours to deploy more resources especially trained medical staff.

Again, the unnecessary human habit of meat-eating creates destruction and illness. The cause of so much disease and trauma, eating the bodies of other
animals filters their benign germs and viruses into the human genome, paving the way for such things as Ebola to take hold, spread, and destroy.

Plus, the production of meat is posing a serious toll on worldwide resources - how many starving people could be fed if we'd give them the vegetables
instead of wasting it to bulls, cows, pigs, ect? And the water?

Significant amounts of land on this planet cannot be used to raise crops. Forbidding animal flesh would actually cause more starvation.

The whole 'crops to feed animals' is only an issue in the rich countries. The rest of the world raises meat on un-farmable land. If you want to say
that we should be sending our grain to feed people in other countries, my response is why should we be responsible for their huge overpopulation
issues?

Humans evolved eating a diet where 2/3 of the calories came from flesh.

We still need a source for protein, vegetables as alone is not really source for that, there are some which do have protein like peas, nuts and dairy
products but when we look at the area where Ebola spreads those sources are not much available to all. Area which are most hard hit with the disease
are slums and poor country sides.

Again, the unnecessary human habit of meat-eating creates destruction and illness. The cause of so much disease and trauma, eating the bodies of other
animals filters their benign germs and viruses into the human genome, paving the way for such things as Ebola to take hold, spread, and destroy.

Some nutrients humans need CANNOT be sourced from vegetables, PETA is lying when they say omega three oils can be found in vegetable form, they are
not the same kind we can use.

Humans started eating meat before the split with chimps, so as far back as 10 million years. Throughout the evolution of the homo genus meat has been
a major source of calories, and in modern humans hunter gatherers typical get 2/3 of their calories from flesh, and yes I can produce research that
shows this.

The reason diseases from animals become a problem is actually a result of the agriculture that allows us to live in such huge numbers so packed in
together. Hunter gatherers get sick sometimes from killed animals, but the diseases only affect a few people due to a lack of opportunity for the
diseases to spread, and at worst they can disband for a few weeks until the disease burns itself out due to a lack of new victims. These big spreading
contagions are down to our huge numbers, and you don't see evidence of them in hunter gatherers of pre neolithic humans.

Basically it's spreading because the people are uneducated and won't deal with the infected or dead in a hygienic way. Sad really, but there's nothing
we can do. I suspect we wouldn't have nearly the level of fatalities or infections in the developed world from it. It's not airborne, so it's
containable.

I suspect as soon as it looks like it might get into a rich country money will be found for vaccine research. There's never been enough reason to work
on one before (to few at risk and they have no money to pay for it anyway). They've already started on one for the chimps, although what that says
about us as a species IDK. www.newscientist.com...

There is now hope: on Monday researchers announced that an experimental Ebola vaccine for chimps is safe and induces a strong immune response.
The vaccine, based on a surface protein from the Ebola virus, had already been shown to protect monkeys.

The original source of Ebola is still a mystery. Index cases (first cases) may be due to "bush meat" but that has yet to be proven, I think. In that
case monkeys would only be carriers themselves, not a "source".

I can tell you that the quarantine procedures in the Vice video are scary looking. A sheet across a door of a "lab" is not going to contain the
virus.

The transmission of Ebola occurs from person to person. Contact with infected people, not just from "eating bushmeat".

This outbreak is not over. Over 500 cases are being reported now. And its Zaire variant. Particularly nasty. The continued spread of the disease is
due to other factors.

Major challenges faced by all partners in the efforts to control the outbreak include its wide geographic spread, weak health-care
infrastructures, and community mistrust and resistance.

So, I have to know ... how are the Bedouin people supposed to live off a plant only diet? Or maybe the Tuareg? Or the Mongolian herdsmen? Or the Inuit
and other Arctic tribes? The fact of the matter is that without animal protein and other animal sourced food, there would be very large places where
human habitation would be impossible. I realize that the most radical greens can only see this as a plus, but it comes at odds with their other
arguments that we should live in harmony with our world. These people had to live in balance with their environments or they wouldn't survive.

As harsh as it sounds, disease is a part of living in harmony with our environment, even diseases as horrible as ebola.

You can no more avoid disease entirely than you can construct the perfect Utopian lifestyle by trying to force everyone to live in a way that is
unnatural to the species. If you don't believe me, do a little check into our dentition versus the dentition of other true herbivores. We are
supposed to use both plant and animal sources in our diets. We're supposed to eat whatever we can.

Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go out with my family, enjoy a Storytime at Barnes & Noble and eat a killer scampi pizza at the pizzeria across
the street.

originally posted by: ketsuko
....As harsh as it sounds, disease is a part of living in harmony with our environment, even diseases as horrible as ebola.

You can no more avoid disease entirely than you can construct the perfect Utopian lifestyle by trying to force everyone to live in a way that is
unnatural to the species. If you don't believe me, do a little check into our dentition versus the dentition of other true herbivores. We are supposed
to use both plant and animal sources in our diets. We're supposed to eat whatever we can. ....

Worth repeating. S&

Also, seems clear that diseases serve to bring us into better harmony with our environment (by infecting us with adaptations to environmental
change).

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